Never Offline. The recent Time Magazine cover was intended to unnerve. The ominous reality is that computers are invading. They are getting strapped and stuck on us, moving into our glasses and our watches. Technology is “attempting to colonize our bodies.”

Rudolf Kabutz's insight:

Media can be ubiquitous if we allow it to be.

I as a human being can limit the space and scope I give to media in my life.

Even with less technology and less information we can life a life of deeper insight, impact and wisdom. In future the challenge will be to find the right balance!

Africans, like everyone else, crave interaction with others. Yet, as the West promotes individualism ...

Rudolf Kabutz's insight:

When people in Africa communicate, the relationships are of utmost importance. Social media is becoming an increasingly valuable tool to nurture these relationships, from the village, city and country level all the way to the global scale.

You can now order your own set of Google Glasses for only R26,999 via Amazon! A 14-year old realised, "If I save all my pocket money then can buy my own Google Glasses in 15 years' time . But when I also save all my tuckshop money, then I can already buy my set in about 5 years' time!"

Kigali, 8 July 2014 Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan have mutually agreed to adopt a (...)

Rudolf Kabutz's insight:

East African countries are enabling improved phone communication across multiple countries, which will stimulate the use of media in the region. Could such collaboration be able to spread to other regions in the new future?

Scientists have found a direct link between the number of "Facebook friends" a person has and the size of particular brain regions. In a new study researchers also showed that the more Facebook friends a person has, the more "real-world" friends they are likely to have.

Rudolf Kabutz's insight:

Media organisations that have in the past unsed uni-diretional communicated are transitioning towards multi-directional interaction with their audiences. If the real-world relationships correlate with the virtual relationships as this study suggests, then the media organisations will need to move beyond social media to interact with their media users, listeners and viewers. Do we need to move back towards live media events hosted by these media organisations?

The adoption of new technologies is accelerating, and nowhere is the trend more obvious than in mobile computing. It took telephones some 45 years

Rudolf Kabutz's insight:

By the end of 2014 there may be more mobile devices on earth, but they will not be evenly spread. While some will be over-connected on multiple devices, others will struggle to even have a single point to connect. Mobile media becomes more accessible, but may result in new social stratification.

Rudy de Waele with former BBC Journalist Shaheera Asante, started a new company called Nyota Media in December 2012. It’s the world’s first communication and PR agency for innovative African entrepreneurs, start-ups, and international companies that use technology to improve the lives of Africans.

"The most common style of public speaking, one that’s often used by politicians and is surprisingly common among investment pitches, is based on sentences. At the end of each sentence, the voice goes up a bit, the speaker pauses, as if waiting for an applause line.

I’ve even seen corporate CEOs be trained to do this, mostly because they lack the guts to trust themselves and their audience. It's my least favorite part of the Techstars pitch training, in fact.

The sentence is not a natural building block of public speaking, and it’s tiring, for both the speaker and the audience. It’s hard to maintain any sort of energy in either direction."

"Giving is the best communication!" A Thai ad praised for its cinematic quality has gone viral.

Rudolf Kabutz's insight:

This advert is a powerful example of the power of a good story, told well, combined with the ability of social media to spread it far and wide (7.6 million views as at today). Thanks to Mark Taylor for the link.

Using media powerfully to communicate a human story within the context of communication advertisin.

Fourth-generation technology is changing the mobile industry. So what will it do in Africa, which has already itself been transformed by mobile?

Rudolf Kabutz's insight:

High speed 4G mobile networks could transform the way people in Africa communicate, live and work - as long as affordable handsets and reasonably priced data packages become available simultaneously. But can these new mobile networks be set up in such a way that much of the revenue actually stays within the African communities, or would this industry grow into a new phase of collonialism where most of the income generated through the mobile platforms is syphoned out of Africa into the developed countries?

The increasing computer power, more systemic connectivity and new paradigms in integrating computing with everyday life will have significant impact on the role of media within humanity - will communication between machines flood the media landscape so much that people will have to search for communication to other real humans?

Socialbakers Announces “Smart Storytellers” At Social Media Week London

Conference

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014

NEXT:

During his presentation at Social Media Week in London, , CEO of Socialbakers, unveiled the new standard for measuring content performance on Facebook, called “Smart Storytellers.”

In , Rezab says, “some brands post a lot, some get a lot of interactions, but few have found the right formula for achieving consistently well-performing content. Smart Storytellers will be the new guide for finding that balance. It looks at the number of Average Post Interactions in relation to post frequency, and shows you what a great content strategy really looks like.”

03

Looking at the screenshot above, a brand’s objective is to reach the green zone in the upper-right hand corner, securing a healthy balance of content quantity and quality with their Facebook fans. The Auto industry is the “Interactions Winner” – gaining the most interactions per post of all industries.

This new benchmark aims to help brands understand what makes a successful content strategy, and how they can strive to achieve it. The closer your brand’s Facebook page gets to the upper-right green corner, the better your content strategy is, taking posts and interactions into account. Socialbakers notes that posting with higher frequency does not result in more success, but rather posting engaging content that your fans will interact with and find value from is ideal.

Rudolf Kabutz's insight:

This is so true in this blog entry: “posting with higher frequency does not result in more success, but rather posting engaging content that your fans will interact with and find value.”

Even the least technical among us are being pressed from all sides by advances in digital technology. We rely upon computers, cell phones, and the Internet for communication, commerce, and entertainment. Yet even though we live in this ‘instant message’...

Rudolf Kabutz's insight:

Do we own technology, or does technology own us? Tim Challies helps us to grapple with the implication of using the newest communication and media technologies in his book "The Next Story"

This new technology magazine started in June 2014. Articles cover fascinating topics randing from big data, health, future cities, robots green energy and future food supply. Very interesting on a number of life-transforming developments!

LONDON, United Kingdom — “I’ve got one word for you today: buffering,” says Lorraine Candy, editor-in-chief of Elle (UK), to her staff at their Monday morning news conference, as she reminds them to keep lining up content for the magazine’s multi-platform presence. The meeting — which kicks off with digital director Phebe Hunnicutt, formerly managing editor of AOL Women’s Group, giving a run-down of stats from the previous week, highlighting which “packages” Elle “users” were picking up on — felt like it was taking place at a tech start-up rather than a pillar-of-the-establishment monthly style publication. Today, there is no … More

Rudolf Kabutz's insight:

The fashion magazine Elle in the UK has completely rebooted itself from a print-focussed publication to a media house that tells stories through videos, photos, and text on a variety of platforms. How can we become strong in telling the African story on all available channels using effective teams?

What does the future of interaction look like between people themselves and between people and their environment? Augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence can be playing an increasingly important role in blurring not just our real relationships with virtual relationships, but even our physical perception of the world around us with the virtually enhanced perceptions of everything around us. While Facebook is striving to become a leader in this augmented world, each individual will need to ask the age-old question that Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" as a blurring variety of realities will be presented.

Futurists are always mindful of the story about Cassandra. To remind us, Cassandra is the princess in Greek mythology who was both blest with perfect foresight, and cursed by the fact that nobody...

Rudolf Kabutz's insight:

Media specialists are greatly skilled in communicating. Futurists specialise about understanding the future. When both work closely together, then media production houses become more informed about telling storing that are relevant to our human future, and futurists learn to tell better stories about the future.How could you help communicators with better futures, or futurists with better media?

What do really brave technical engineers do to enable others to enjoy their media?They free-climb up broadcasting towers of a height of 539 metres, which is higher than the Empire State Building and the Sears Tower!This "scary" video shows you how it's done!

NOTE: Please be aware that the organisations of tower climbing technicians claim a number of inaccuracies in this video, and do not endorse the safety aspects portrayed in the video.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.